so, tonight I celebrated a friend’s birthday. when I got home, I met my neighbors – two beautiful young ladies, Anna and Valerie. as I was walking towards my apartment, I heard a distinct accent – I was quite sure it was Russian. when I got closer to the girls, I asked them if they were speaking Russian. in fact, they were speaking Ukrainian, which is very similar to Russian.

they grew up in the port city of Sevastopol, Ukraine. they told me how they have to take a ferry to get to the downtown. how cars cost twice as much there as they do in America, because the credit system is so flawed. how people go to college, not to get a great job, but to get a job. how you have to know someone to be someone. how the cops will let you off with a friendly wave, if you give them a few dollars – if you have a few dollars to give. how rude the average citizen is, and how they are totally unapologetic. how racism thrives, and Blacks (as few of them as there are) are persecuted (killed) for the color of their skin, when I thought racism abounded here in the USA. how hard it is to get to America, and how, should they ever decided to return home, they will be permanently banned from returning here to America.

as I listened for over an hour to the various stories, I started to think about how great a country this truly is. how, whether our next President is Obama or McCain, we’re going to be alright. I’ll still have a roof over my head and food to eat.

I hope I’ve made two new friends who have some cool stuff to teach me.

spend a day in Blacksburg and you’ll see shirts with that tagline. but recently, a Hokie hater I know made an interesting comment, a common misconception many of us have heard before: “a Hokie is a castrated turkey“.

I’d like to set the record straight about my beloved birdy friend. Hokies have a full set of genitalia. no, it’s not typically displayed on our logos or our mascot, but I’ve never seen a Clemson Tiger or the Boston College Eagle with something flapping around down below, either. have you?

I did some research, and came up with this article on the HokieSports.com site.

A lot of misinformation seems to be flying around about the turkey, not the least of which is that a Hokie is a castrated gobbler, slander probably circulated by rivals who feel inadequate to our own beloved mascot. So set misinformed family and friends straight…

it then goes on to establish why Virginia Tech is just, well, awesome!

“I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character. … The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.” –Benjamin Franklin

copy the code into a new text file, and rename its extension to “.js”. if you post this code anywhere else, please be sure to give me credit by linking back to this site. got questions or improvements? leave a comment!

over the years, I’ve written a few custom scripts to do my electronic dirty work. some of these are iTunes scripts, and I think others will find them useful as well. copy the following code into a new text file, and rename its extension to “.js”

Quotes

It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting sacrificial offerings. Where there is service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be master. - Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual